A house that’s so terrifying it was legally declared haunted by New York state

There’s a house that sits right on the Hudson River in the small village of Nyack that actually has legal proof that it’s haunted. Yes, you read that right! Known today as the “Ghostbusters Ruling”, this one house has a frightening story behind it that you won’t believe.

The house itself was built sometime around 1900, being used throughout the years as both a boarding house and a family residence. In the early 1960s a woman by the name of Helen Ackley moved into the house with her family, not realizing what terrifying trouble was awaiting them inside the home.

Once the Ackley family moved into the home on the dead end street in Nyack, a series of chilling events began to take place. Helen began to tell neighbors of the unusual events that were occurring in the house, many of which never believed her accusations. It wasn’t until years later when a young and perfectly healthy house guest came over to the Ackley’s home for dinner that people in the area began to question what was really going on in the house. The guest came over to the house, collapsed to the floor and died immediately of a brain aneurysm.

The most common thing to happen in the house? The supposed spirits that haunted the residence had a habit of waking everyone up in the morning by violently shaking their beds. While it may sound like the most unpleasant way possible to be woken from your slumber, the family eventually learned to live with spirits haunting their home.

One night Helen reportedly announced before everyone went to bed that there was no school the following morning, asking the spirits to not wake everyone up. The following morning the Ackley family woke up on their own for a change, only convincing them even further that the house was truly haunted.

Titled “Our Haunted House On The Hudson”, Helen’s article to Reader’s Digest claimed that while she was painting in the living room a spirit stayed in the room with her. Helen said that the spirit was a man who was rocking back and forth in mid-air, approving of the changes that her and the Ackley family were making to the home.

According to the family, they believed that there were either two or three spirits that shared the home with them. The spirits were said to be from the era of the American Revolutionary War, leaving random gifts for the children randomly throughout the house, slamming doors and making their presence known through the sound of their footsteps.

After finding a buyer to sell the haunted home to, the Ackley family soon found themselves in hot water. Not from the nearby area, a couple put a down-payment on the home in hopes of purchasing it. After the deposit was made, the Stambovsky’s saw that the home was included on a list for one of the local ghost tours, causing them to no longer want the home as their own.

Known formally as Stombovsky v. Ackley, the unusual court case is now more commonly referred to as the Ghostbusters ruling. The Stombovsky’s argued that it was their right to back out on the offer for the house, never being made aware of the chilling history that surrounded it. In the first case held, the judge ruled that the Ackley family was not at fault for not making the home’s haunted history known to the buyers. The Stombovsky’s ended up appealing the first ruling, going on to win the second trial. During the second trail the judge even went as far as to quote the Ghostbusters movie asking “Who ya gonna call?” when you discover that your house is filled with paranormal activity. It doesn’t quite get any more strange than this.

Today, the Ghostbusters ruling is a case that is frequently taught in law classes and brought up during other court cases because of how bizarre the entire situation was. Never before in the history of New York has our state declared a house to be haunted.